Hip Hop Ukulele

While our main reason for bringing you this song was to feature your ukulele students, it has a lot of other things going for it, educationally speaking. First, it does indeed feature the ukulele, in this case, with a cool jazzy hip hop groove behind them. There's even a section at measure 13 where you can feature one or more players, either as written or improvising as you prefer. Second, because it's a swing tune, the eighth notes are triplet-based. Which means you can discuss swinging and jazz in general as part of the lesson if you're so inclined. In any event, be sure students know that when there is an eighth note, particularly a string of them, they are to be swung. The players and singers on the recording offer an excellent example of this.

Speaking of the singers – turns out this was a particular fun piece for them to do in the session. Not much to remember lyrically, but fun nonetheless, especially when it breaks into harmony. So we thought it might be neat to do an a cappella mix for them to listen to and/or sing along with. We did decide to add drums though because while we were working with it, it felt good and amplified the hip hop nature.

We also thought you might want to make it a more focused ukulele piece without vocals at all. So we created an extra track with just the full accompaniment and ukuleles. You will find both of these extras online at our web site.

Musically, you also get a chance to practice a few nuanced moments. Dynamics change from forte to mezzo forte and back. There is a recurring gliss in the vocal line with a crescendo/decrescendo to be mindful of. And the use of glots (glottal articulations – from the back of the throat) are indicated on the music as well. And finally, the pronunciation of ukulele as "oo-koo-lay-lay" helps keep the vocal sound round and pure. You see? Lots of educational moments.